Summertime

I'm not sure if anyone checks out our Flickr page so I decided to post some of the neat photos we've taken lately.


We found this old bottle in the park (Iqalugaarjup Nunanga). Does anyone know how old it is? I'm interested in knowing. There are old pop and beer cans all over the place here, some older than others.


This is the largest piece of bone we've found yet.

This caribou must have had a good dentist in its day because even though it's dead, it still has whiter teeth than me:



Jeff and I are enjoying summer here. Going on vacation really helps to refreshen your passion for the north. Anyone who's been north knows that you really, really need to get out every now and then or it just stops being enjoyable. Since we've been back, I've gotten re-excited about things that I hadn't thought about since we moved here. After the long winter, I had forgotten about most of the things that made me glad we moved here. By May, all I could think about was how much I wanted to see people and places I've known my whole life, but by June I just wanted to be back with all the new people and places.

We've gotten fully back in the groove here. Our number one excitement has reverted back to Mail!! Yipee!! not unlike most people I know here. We slept one night in a cabin here (which was awesome) and I woke up the next day to see Jeff had ordered us a tent and two sleeping bags. So I guess camping is going to become our new hobby. I'm not aware of any of the northern bloggers regularly camping which is interesting because it's so much fun. I'm considering buying a cabin next year as well. Now that I'm working, I need something (other than retirement) to save for, or else I'll end up spending everything.

I'm really looking forward to the idea that somebody, anybody! will come visit us next summer. We haven't had any visitors which is too bad because I think most people I know would love it here, especially now that we have an ATV and camping stuff on the way. They're all going to get some major pestering next spring so they might as well admit defeat now and start saving money. ;)

(posted by Jaime)

Baker Lake

I made a trip inland to Baker Lake this past week, and thought I'd put up some photos.





















An old Hudson Bay Company post which has been turned into a visitors centre.






















A little bit of leftover snow on June 28th.






















Snowmobiles on Baker Lake.



















Calm Air Saab 340 landing at the Baker Airport.

There are a few more photos of Baker on our Flickr page if anyone is interested. The link is over on the right sidebar. Here's a couple more pictures from around Rankin the last few days...



This is the remaining ice in the Meliadine River.



Jaime on the mighty Honda.

(posted by Jeff)

Home Again

Well, we're back from vacation. We're just in time for the longest days of the year, too. How convenient, says Jaime sarcastically. I'm not sure if the sky actually gets dark because I've been asleep if it has. And that doesn't really say much, since sleeping has become quite difficult for me since coming back. We have two-thirds of our bedroom window tin-foiled but the pesky one-third left is enough to keep me awake.

Our vacation was very relaxing and we were able to do and see and buy everything we wanted (well, within reason). After Summerside, PEI, we spent 2 nights in Halifax and 2 in Lower Sackville with Jeff's aunt and uncle. Jeff felt sick for most of the time so we ended up taking it easy in Halifax/Lower Sackville. Once we arrived back in Ontario for 2 weeks, we really learned the definition of taking it easy. Other than visiting Tobermory and Windsor, we really didn't do too much other than shopping and spending many hours on Jeff's parents' patio. Jeff's parents have a nice piece of property which was perfect for relaxing.


Jeff's parents' front yard.

As for the sun, here is what I'm talking about:


The sun at 9:41pm.


The sun at 10:29pm.


The sun at 11:07pm.

Let me also point out that last night (when the photos were taken), it was cloudy. Right now it is clear out and it is even brighter:


The sun now, at 10:10pm. I gotta figure out a way to clean that window without buying scaffolding...

I'm going to stop bragging about our sunlight now because we're not even north of arctic circle, where the sun actually does not set. In Rankin it does set, just briefly. In other Rankin news, it appears that many people have left for the summer. Our apartment building seems completely dead, though I do know of a few people in our building who haven't left.

In other news, I also started my new job as the Detachment Clerk for the RCMP yesterday. It's a temporary gig -- just until March -- but I anticipate it to be enjoyable and a good experience. Everybody is really friendly so I imagine the time will fly by.

We finally were able to take out our ATV and take a few rides. It's amazingly fun and I can't wait to take it on the land. As soon as our fishing rods arrive in the mail, we'll be in real business.

To finish this entry, I leave you with the best purchase from our trip.


A gigantic, behemoth remote control.


"To obtain a dialing wand, mash the keypad with your palm NOW." (Any fellow Simpsons buffs reading?)

I'd also like to point out that Jeff is so bored right now, he is reading the phone book.

I'm not lying!

(posted by Jaime)

Maycation

Greetings from Summerside, PEI! In case you've been wondering why we haven't been updating lately, it's because we've been enjoying what we call Maycation 2007.

Here is a brief rundown of what we've done so far:
May 10-16th: I (Jaime) spent time with friends and my brother in Toronto. Good times were had and many dollars were spent. By the end, I had been to the Eaton's Centre 3 or 4 times and my feet were very sore. On the flight from Rankin to Winnipeg, I flew with Sheila Rogers and Jonathon Torrens, who were in town for our golf tournament. Rick Mercer was also supposed to be on the flight but I guess he didn't make it to Rankin for some reason.

May 16-19: I spent a few days in mine and Jeff's hometown, Sarnia (Ontario). Although I was constantly on the go, it was a nice change of pace from Toronto. Not to mention, I was able to drive myself around. I hadn't driven since July! I was surprised at how easy it was, considering it had been 9 months of not driving anything. I hadn't even ridden a bike.

May 14-18: Jeff spent the week in Iqaluit for a week-long work event. He called me while I was in Toronto and told me, "It's a freaking metropolis here!" I found it funny, considering I was in Toronto (population: 2,503,281) and he was in Iqaluit (population: 6184). On the 18th, Jeff flew to Ottawa and spent the night.

May 19th: After an extremely tight connecting flight, Jeff and I met in Ottawa. I almost didn't make it because our plane was delayed and the connection was tight as it was (my plane from Toronto was set to land at the same time I was supposed to board the Ottawa plane). There were a flew of us on the plane and they let us get off first, with the instruction to RUN! Once I ran through 9 gates and met Jeff, he told me they weren't going to leave without us anyway.

We flew to Halifax, got our rental Jeep, and spent a few hours sleeping in Lower Sackville before heading out towards Cape Breton. We spent one night in Antigonish, drove the entire Cabot Trail, spent two nights in Sydney, then drove to Charlottetown. We spent two nights there and drove to Summerside today. Jeff and I are both in agreement that Charlottetown has been our favourite part so far. That might be because it was cold and rainy for the whole trip until we reached Charlottetown.

We're on our way to Cavendish tomorrow, where we may reluctantly do the Anne of Green Gables thing.

Here are some of the nicer photos we've taken so far. As always, there's WAY more on our Flickr.


The rental Jeep. She's brand new and only had something like 1200km on her! Not anymore!


I took this photo in Cow Bay, NS. I love this photo...it's amazing.


Pleasant Harbour, Cape Breton. The grey on the top of the photo is fog...something which dominated the first 3 days of our trip.


The Cabot Trail from within Cape Breton Highlands National Park. That road sign is very, very accurate. Also, the snow during this leg of our vacation was a little scary to me, considering we were on vacation to get away from snow, heh. Luckily, the snow was just on the mountains.


Cliché Atlantic Canada lighthouse photo. Taken from Neil's Harbour, Cape Breton.


Lighthouse and red soil at Wood Islands, PEI. Taken from the ferry.

(posted by Jaime)

Picture Perfect

We booked most of our flights! I'll be spending a few days in Toronto and Sarnia (where I grew up) before meeting Jeff in Halifax. I have 9 days in Ontario as I'm flying down May 10 and meeting Jeff on May 19 (Jeff is coming from Iqaluit for a work thing). I'm really, really excited to see my friends and family.

We'll be back in Rankin for June 17 which makes this the longest vacation in human history. The way we see it is we've gone much longer without going on vacation than everyone we know. We've been here since August and we haven't gone on a single vacation so if that doesn't warrant a month-long vacation, I don't know what does.

Yesterday we tried to go fishing with some friends but it didn't quite work out. We were unable to find a hole to use and we didn't have the right equipment to dig a hole in less than 12 hours, ha. We ended up going on a drive on the land and on the northern side of the inlet and it was enjoyable. We hadn't been up the road since the fall and it was great to see the land again.

Anyway, we were able to take some awesome photos. We really like them, and I think they're my favourite photos we've taken, so enjoy...


Searching for a hole in the ice on Landing Lake. There are cottages around the lake, which is what you see in the background. I love this photo!


Two dog teams did a few laps around the lake, presumably for some qablunaat.


Attention Ford employees: we are willing to sell you this photo. Hahaha...


A Bombadier bringing some stuff back, possibly from Chesterfield Inlet, or possibly just their cabin. I want to ride on one of these so bad.


A polar bear. You can see the gunshot hole in its shoulder.


This muskox has been across the street from the Sugar Rush for a few weeks now.


Close-up muskox head details.

(posted by Jaime)

I did take photos!

Hah... and Jaime says I'd never get photos of Chesterfield Inlet:



I missed some great photos coming into town, but checked my camera and couldn't take anything. This is the Chesterfield Inlet Airport.



The doors of smaller airports in this region have walk-in-cooler (or fridge) doors on them which I find kind of amusing.



This is a photo of the edge of town. I went to get a pop at what I thought was the Northern, and an older man indicated that the Northern was way across town, so I went thirsty all day until I got back to Rankin.



This is the tail end of a Calm Air Cargo plane that left before us. I really wanted to take a picture of the vintage bird I was flying in (A Fairchild Merlin IIIA? ca. 1970?), but checked my camera before it came in!

(posted by Jeff) (with Jaime's help in the photo department)

Rankin Inlet Videos

Awhile ago I recorded some footage of driving around Rankin. I never got around to uploading it until recently.

There are three videos: parts 1, 2, and 3 and they're in order, though it doesn't really make a difference. Parts 1 and 2 are the drive on the way to the Sugar Rush Cafe and part 3 is the drive back. There's no sound for any of them because it was just my friends chatting, unaware that I was filming (haha) so I removed it.

Enjoy the show!

(posted by Jaime)

The Truth and Random Canines

Well everybody, it's time we told you all the truth:

We didn't really move to Nunavut. We moved to Saudi Arabia. The proof is in this photo of our weather monitor, seen here showing you the temperatures -- in Celsius -- of the weather inside and outside:



Okay okay, so we didn't really move to Saudi Arabia, but maybe our weather monitor wants to. Maybe it was daydreaming at this moment, wondering what the heck it got itself into when it let itself get purchased by us back in London. Honestly, I have no idea why it thought it was so freaking hot. The sun does shine on it and make a difference sometimes, but never anything like this, and not anymore now that the weather has cooled down.

Admittedly, I get a huge kick out of this. So many jokes can be made from this weather monitor reading (the "max" means these temperatures are the hottest temperatures the monitor has ever recorded; it happened a week or two ago). The best is perhaps, "Hell really HAS frozen over!" Maybe a better photo would have been me holding the monitor while outside in my parka amongst the snow.

On a completely unrelated note...does anybody know what the heck this thing is that Jeff found lingering around the oil tanks?




Is it a dog or something else?

On one last, unrelated note: the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Bill Graham may be in to talk to our class tomorrow (and if not him, his assistant or something). He's in Rankin right this very moment. I'm looking forward to it; I've never seen or met anyone remotely important in our government before. An MPP used to live across the street from me in Ontario and that's about as personal with our government as I've ever gotten.

Our cookie selling was cancelled tonight, too. I guess I'll have to wait for another night to get winter-dressed-up for real. Ah well, maybe my boots will be here by the time it's rescheduled. I wasn't looking forward to the -5C + snow wearing only sneakers.


(posted by Jaime)

Good morning, Rankin!

This morning we were greeted with the first snow fall of the fall. It's currently -8C with a windchill of about -15 or -20.

I snapped some shots of the snow for all to see.


A view of the land. That white dot at the upper right corner is the moon.


A view of my lovely school, at which I just started a new class; Native Issues, which is more like Inuit Issues. It's taught by the former president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Jose Kusugak. Really the most appropriate person to be teaching such a class! I'm looking forward to learning new things about Inuit history and culture. The class is about half-English, half-Inuktitut so it's kind of hard for me to understand and pay attention because he'll start out talking in one language and end in another. So far I've been able to just assume certain things he's saying and he will translate a little bit, but it's still hard. The class is Monday to Friday 9-12 and again from 1-4 so it's going to be a big exercise of my attention span, haha.

Later today I'll be dressing for the cold for real, no fun walks to try out the parkas. We're going to be selling Girl Guide cookies (the yummy mint ones). Today is the coldest (and snowiest) day so far that we've had to endure here so tonight should be interesting. I think I should rig up some hoses or something in my parka so I can have a constant stream of hot chocolate to sip tonight. That'd be luxury!

(posted by Jaime)

Trip to Iqalugaarjuup Nunanga Park

We were fortunate enough to have Jaime's classmate and her husband take us out on the land today. It was great. We went to the local territorial park, the entrance of which is on the right.

Here are some more pictures:

Above: This is the Meliadine river inside the park. All you can see is big boulders in all directions. It doesn't look like much of a river, but you could hear it quite well from where we were standing.


This is a sod house. It is a caribou skin roof.


Geese flying South.


Our picture of the day: An arctic fox eating what looks to be a white mitten. Hopefully there still isn't a hand in it.


A portly little siksik.


The 18th hole of the Rankin Inlet Golf and Country Club: where the greens are like carpet.


There are lots more on our Flicker page if you want to see them. Check out the Thule site and a photo of Jaime and me in the sod house.

(posted by Jeff)

Field Trip Day

I just came back from my field trip! It was very, very cool.

For starters, I haven't used any mode of transportation besides my feet since August 1st so I was even looking forward to the bus ride.

I got to school and someone told me that I should have brought a container for picking berries. I didn't feel like walking home to get one but I was lucky that someone else lent me a container.

When we got on the bus and drove away I was giddy to not be walking! I sat at the very back and it was the bumpiest 25 minutes of my life but a lot of fun. I was kind of disappointed that I didn't have a camera to take photos with because it was such great scenery. When we got there a few of us immediately started picking berries. I didn't get too many, maybe a couple of handfuls. I wish I understood Inuktitut a bit better because I can't understand what people's names are. I need to see them written down before I even attempt to repeat them! Haha.

We picked berries for about 45 minutes until it was lunch. It was great timing because I could hardly feel my fingers anymore. My current winter jacket is quite short and coupled with the fact I was wearing jeans and no wind pants, my lower back was so cold and exposed. When I was trying to get my food my fingers were so cold and tired I almost dropped things.

For lunch we had sandwiches and caribou chili. The chili was really good; not spicy at all which I can't stand. After lunch someone had caught 3 arctic chars and started gutting one right there on the floor. I was mesmerized because I've never fished in my life and I've never seen a fish cut open in front of me. I think the guy cutting the fish heard me say that because he took a chunk of its insides and started eating them while watching my reaction. He cut up some of the fish and only a few people started eating it. Some people were trying to get me to eat it too but I was hesitant because I realized if I didn't like it, I would probably start gagging and I didn't want to embarrass myself. I finally caved into the peer pressure and grabbed a big chunk and I actually liked it. The skin was a bit hard to eat but something tells me they're not big on chewing here.

So that was my proud moment.
After that we all played games of which I won none. It was okay, though, because the prizes were mostly children's sized clothes and we don't have kids.

One of my friends brought her husband, baby, and puppy. Her husband said the puppy was an 8-week-old 95% huskey, 5% lab...but all that meant to me was that it was sooooo cute.

The cabin we had gone to was in Iqalugaarjuup Nunanga park. I tried to find the cabin on Google Earth but I can't seem to locate it.

All in all it was a fabulous day but after today I think it's parka time until next July. :)

(posted by Jaime)

Arctic Bunny Rabbits

We just got back from a short walk. I managed to grab a photograph of an arctic hare. It's a little bit fuzzy because of how little time I had to take it, the damn things are fast! and big!

P.S. Check out our Flickr page, we added about 15 photos from today's walk onto it.

(posted by Jeff)

Jeff's First Post from Nunavut

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I made a post here, Jaime's been doing most of the work on the blog lately. I started work on Wednesday, the day after we got to town. It seems great so far, everyone has been really nice and given me a pleasant welcome. I get to take my first "work trip" to Yellowknife the 14th through the 16th, and I'm pretty excited about it - even though it means I'll have to leave Jaime here all alone for two full days.

We've been going out on walks quite a bit, trying not to stray too too far from town as something tells me that it would be pretty easy to lose your bearing up here. It's incredible how beautiful it is up here, and knowing that what we see here stretches for hundreds uninterrupted kilometers in every direction only compounds it.

We're going to order our "winter gear" online this afternoon. I'm a bit apprehensive about ordering winter parkas over the internet, and hoping they'll fit when they get here, but I don't think we'll get anywhere with a good selection of winter stuff (beyond the Columbia stuff at the Northern store) prior to the set in of cold weather. On our first night here (August 1st) we went out for a quick walk around the neighbourhood and already we could see our breath. We haven't experienced that again since, and it is currently 18.5 celsius out (according to our just-installed weather station), but learning from the locals apparently by September it will be very cold.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some more photos (we're sort of obsessed with taking pictures of the landscape right now).



A view of Hudson Bay just out past the landfill (we didn't know we were beside the landfill at the time, though the hoardes of biting flies should have tipped us off).



Same area, this time with seagulls. Are they still called seagulls up here? or bagels? ("[Hudson] Bay gulls" hahahah.. joke courtesy of Jaime)



A friendly little ermine Arctic ground squirrel (thanks, Clare!) that let us get quite close.



Rankin Inlet's Inukshuk. I don't think the Thule/Inuit had cast in place concrete, but it gives you the idea.

(posted by Jeff)